A fresh start, as often as you need it

Whenever you're trying to establish a new habit, there's a startup period where 1. things are awkward and difficult and you 2. fail to do the new habit perfectly.

We fall down, we have some feelings, and we pick ourselves up again. And again.

For some people, the trouble is that they wait too long to begin again.They might wait until Monday morning. In extreme cases, they might wait until January 1.

And this is no way to establish a new habit because lots of repetition is what's required to form a new habit pathway in the brain. We need to "fall down seven times; get up eight," and do it rapidly.

(I mean! It's hard to get up, so if we can avoid falling down, all the better. But we can't always avoid it.)

Gretchen Rubin, in her book Better Than Before - which is all about habits - recommends we divide the day into four periods: Morning, midday, afternoon and evening. No need to wait until Monday or heaven forbid January 1. You can clean your slate and start fresh in a few hours.

I like this because I typically eat four times a day (breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner). I suggest the same to my clients who come to me either skipping a lot of meals or eating all day long. Regular meals is a time-tested model in use all over the world. It completely stops you getting hangry.

But I also love it because if you eat imperfectly (it can happen), or even "totally BLOW it" at one meal, you can have another go at it in just a few hours.

If you're not already eating meals - and in my experience so many women aren't - that's my #1 pro tip. Try it out! Let me know how it feels to have a clean slate four times a day.